Short Story

Short Story

This 1972 Lotus Europa was nominated by Jay Leno to be Overhauled for John, who delivers soda every weekend to Jay Leno’s Big Dog Garage. Unfortunately, his children’s tuition and college expenses prevent John from repairing the Europa, so Jay brought in the A-Team.

Build Specifications

When we received the vehicle the original motor was in pieces on the floor. It only produced 80hp in its day, but got a dramatic increase with a new 1.8L Elise motor pushing it to over 200hp. Of course this required a whole series of changes to the frame as it was way too much power for the existing car. The new engine was mounted in a transverse position, but the chassis was for an in-line engine and gearbox, requiring a custom adapter to link the new Porsche Boxster 5 speed transmission to the new motor. Magnaflow did a custom ground-up build on the exhaust. To top it all off a supercharger was installed to boost the horsepower beyond 300hp.

Body Modifications

The fiberglass body had a substantial amount of stress fractures and was too brittle for all the planned upgrades. Certain areas were reinforced with extra layers so we could move ahead with the modifications. The front was pulled back 4” in the nose and bumper. Porsche headlights were used and pulled back into the body about 7”. The wheel openings were reshaped and pulled out. The hood was cut open similar to a GT40. Front fenders and rear quarters were rounded off so that the curvature into the doors would flow better. The door cut line now stretches into the roof with added scoops for air intake on the sides. In the back, the rear bumper was flipped and attached to the lower part of the body with recessed rear tail lights.

Exterior Design

John liked the red, white and gold accents found in the Lotus factory race team paint schemes from past eras. Chip used the red and white base colors on the final paint scheme, with 7-Up green as the new accent color. A GT40 inspired center stripe runs the length of the vehicle. All the body modifications allowed for the original 13” wheels to be upgraded to 18” wheels. Chip created one-off three-piece wheels and wrapped them with Pirelli tires.

Interior Design

Inspired by the tans and blacks of ‘70s era Ferraris, Chip’s unique design was passed on to Bill Dunn Interior and made a reality. The original seats were restored and made 2” wider. The dashboard was reshaped and a new Porsche 996 gauge cluster installed

This 1972 Lotus Europa was nominated by Jay Leno to be Overhauled for John, who delivers soda every weekend to Jay Leno’s Big Dog Garage. Unfortunately, his children’s tuition and college expenses prevent John from repairing the Europa, so Jay brought in the A-Team.